Latin America News - Pollution & Water Quality

July 4, 2015 Wayne woman works to provide clean water in GuatemalaAlberta Longone-Messer understood the significance. The woman had given her the cup as treasured gift, but Longone-Messer knew drinking the water inside could make her violently ill. She stood looking at the cup, wondering how to honor the woman’s graciousness while still preserving her health.“ I looked at my colleagues,” Longone-Messer recalled. “I knew I couldn’t drink it. How can I tell her I can’t do this?”

June 25, 2015 Behind Latin America’s Anti-Mining Protests: Water ConcernsMining conflicts are intensifying across Latin America, with 218 mining projects embroiled in conflicts with 312 communities—including six conflicts spanning national borders—from Mexico to Argentina. One of the most prominent protests flared up this spring in southern Peru, at the $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper mine run by the Mexican-owned company Southern Copper.

June 1, 2015 Seven Years Documenting Chevron’s Environmental Crimes in Ecuador Pollution CaseChevron CEO John Watson and General Counsel Hewitt Pate could end much misery by stepping outside the courtroom and into the lives of the Ecuadorian indigenous. They could listen to their stories. They could help them clean up what Texaco contaminated. Will they help? Or, will they become known as the two men who spent at least $1 billion in legal fees to block assistance to the poorest and most disenfranchised people in Ecuador?

April 22, 2015 Water Politics Polarised in MexicoLaura Romero has piped water in her home for only a few hours a day, and at least once a week she is cut off completely. Like the rest of the residents in her neighbourhood in the north of the Mexican capital, she has to store water in containers like drums or jerrycans.

August 27, 2014 Brazil to Monitor Improvement of Water Quality in Latin AmericaProblems in access to quality drinking water, supply shortages and inadequate sanitation are challenges facing development and the fight against poverty in Latin America. A new regional centre based in Brazil will monitor water to improve its management.